Welcome to Geberit North America - Company History 1874

Home

Geberit Group

Contact

Legal


Our Company		Our Products		Our Literature		Find a Distributor		For Specifiers		For Customers

Company Profile

News

Sustainability

Geberit Facts and Figures

Environmental and Quality Policy

Company > Company Profile

Eventful history - fascinating perspectives

The first years - the first innovations

> 1874 - 1935 First years - first innovations > 1952 - 1967 A new age - plastic's victorious march > 1972 - 1996 Unstoppable climb to market leadership > 1997 - 2004 From a family-run business to a public company > 2005 - 2009 Geberit - positioning as an international Group

Caspar Melchior
Albert Gebert

1874
Caspar Melchior Albert Gebert (1850-1909) of St. Gallenkappel, Switzerland opens his first plumbing business on the Engelplatz Square in the old town quarter of Rapperswil.

1876
Gebert marries Josefina Domeisen, three years his junior. Gebert purchases property in the Herrenberg 25/obere Halsgasse 39 from Josefina's family for 8,000 Swiss francs. Six children bless the happy marriage. Sadly, three daughters die young of diphtheria and one daughter drowns in a tragic boat accident. Only two children remain to the couple, their sons Albert Emil and Leo Gebert.

1897
Purchase of the Phoenix property on the sunny side of the Engelplatz. The workshop is also moved to these premises and then a store is opened on the ground floor. The old property is sold in 1900. Around the turn of the century, appliances and fixtures for sanitary installations are still rather primitive. This situation gives the Gebert brothers Albert Emil and Leo the idea to open their own factory. The company is further expanded by the addition of a foundry, a tool-making shop, a turning shop and a workshop specializing in surface treatment.

Wooden cistern

1905
Albert Emil Gebert succeeds in manufacturing the first, lead-lined wooden cistern with lead fittings under the brand name of "Phoenix". This product is the cornerstone for future growth.

1909
The first cisterns produced in Switzerland leave the production plant in Rapperswil. After the death of their father, the sons Albert Emil Gebert (1880-1969) and Leo Gebert (1888-1964) take over management of the company. Albert and Leo marry the Basle-born sisters Regina and Anna Droeser. Albert Emil and Regina Gebert-Droeser are sole shareholders and company directors for several decades. Leo Gebert is particularly gifted in the construction of new inventions. He is the actual inventor of the valve-based toilet flushing mechanism. Before long, the two enterprising brothers begin to draw up plans for the construction of their own manufacturing factory so that all their production sites and workshops, which are scattered in various locations around the little town of Rapperswil, are under one roof.

1912
The first patent for the "Phoenix" wooden cistern is registered. The company is soon supplying customers throughout Switzerland and the neighboring countries with this reliable cistern.

Old production unit at the Falkenstrasse

1916
A milestone in the history of Geberit is the purchase of real estate in the Falkenstrasse in Rapperswil. Albert Emil Gebert buys a 1,493m² piece of land for the price of 8.50 Swiss francs per square meter.

1917
In the midst of the First World War, construction of the new production plant is begun.

1918
The product range is expanded by the addition of odour traps and shut-off valves for the chemical industry.

1921
The new building is completed and all production units and workshops are transferred to the new premises. Production is concentrated on lead-lined cisterns with Geberit-designed copper and lead cistern fittings and ball cocks, patented both in Switzerland and abroad. Traps and shut-off valves of lead for the acids industry are added to the range of products.

Prodution of lead fittings

1924
An additional 851m² of land are purchased in the Falkenstrasse to enlarge the production site.

1929
Albert Emil Gebert opens the company's first foreign office; a retail depot in Paris.

1935
A groundbreaking development for the future of the company is when work begins in the area of plastic processing, at this time a very new technique used to produce corrosion-resistant cistern components and pipes.

Between 1935 and 1952, the Gebert & Cie. company is beset with immense problems. Apart from the Second World War, the reasons for these problems and their specific nature can only be speculated upon. During these years, processing material was delivered only against advance payment. By this time (1953), Albert Emil Gebert is an elderly man of 73 years and Leo Gebert is already 65 years old. The 36 year-old Heinrich Gebert asks his younger brother Klaus (27) to join the company. The entrepreneurial spirit of these two young men is so great that they succeed in resolving all the problems.

1945-1969 >